The Concept Of Race
3 Pages 751 Words
The Concept of Race
Race- A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics. What in the world does that mean? Every definition is vague, nothing is definite. When I was growing up I never noticed the color of people’s skin until I started Kindergarten. It was something that was taught to me. I have always has black, white, and tan colored skinned friends. As I have grown older I have noticed that there are lines, you can’t walk into a store with someone of a different color with out getting looks.
I am white, and a good friend in high school was black. We were friends from the first day I started at Eastside, he was my body guard and I was his little comedian sister. After four years of hanging out, studying, and working together, my friend asked me to date him. I just did not see him as a “boyfriend” he was my big brother. He claimed that I did not want to date him because he was black. Honestly, it had nothing to do with his skin color. It was not until then that I realized how naïve I had been about race, how deep race runs in the south.
Race is really just a category; it has nothing to do with anything but the color of skin, or the region your ancestors were from hundreds of years ago. Race in the south is the color of your skin. Supposedly, if you are white you think you are too good for the blacks. If you are a light skinned black you are shunned by the dark skinned blacks. Does this make any sense?
In a big city, like Atlanta, white people and black people are different than the people in a small town, like Statesboro. The white and black people act differently toward each other. They act differently period. In Atlanta, you have a small group of people running around with rebel flags all over their trucks, and the rest think they are stupid. In Statesboro, a larger group of the white population have the rebel fla...